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What is robot?
'Welcome!' I am MrRobotov and I'm a huge robot fan. My fascination led me to make some statements. I have collected some information and I wanted to share it with everybody. You can of course agree with me or not. This is my personal opinion. 'So, what is robot?' On the Internet, encyclopedias and other sources, there are many definitions and descriptions. Each of them presents the robot from different angle and non of them really shows what is that. It was really hard to find out what it really is the robot. It took me of course a lot of time. I have two versions. Personally I am the believer of this second one. The first one tells that robot is each and every being that is just artificial, so beings like: golems, artificial made people from R.U.R. and many others would be just robots. The second one tells that a robot is a mechanical being, created from mechanisms. And for me it would be the best definition, because mechanical beings are completely different from other kind of beings (even if they are artifficial), so robots have to have their own category, aren't they? So if a robot has to be mechanical, you would ask: what is this "mechanism" that makes the robot? And in fact this is the hardest question to answer. And to make it a bit easier for first I decided to say what is not robot. Not robots are of course: organics, cyborgs, any immaterial beings (because mechanism has to be material as well) and others. A mechanism is a device designed to transform input forces and movement into a desired set of output forces and movement. And in other words it's just a device which is used to transfer energy and use this energy to move. So technically mechanism could be also built from for example bones. And bones are the domain of organics as well. So it gives us the question if a robot made of bones would be still robot or maybe something else? And that's the thing, the magical border I was talking about before, that can make you think that robots can be in fact all artificial being. But I still prefer to think that robots are mechanical beings, not all that are artificial. 'The origin of word "robot"' The word "robot" has been introduced to humanity by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Czech: Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti, English: Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921. The play was written in 1920 and performed in 1921. The word "robot" was introduced to Karel Čapek by his brother Josef Čapek and in fact he is the creator of this word. In this play the word "robot" meant something completely different, it just meant artificially made human beings, not robots in today's meaning. And probably that's why this word sometimes appears to describe something artificial, not only robotic. 'Difference between machine, robot, A.I. and cyborg' *'machine' - is each and every robot and/or A.I. (computer). *'robot' - is pure mechanic. It cannot have ANY organic parts, even slight organic. : Robots can be of course very various styles. And I think that there are two main of them. Pure mechanical (where there is no comuter inside, only some mechnism) and mechanical combined with computers (where minor or major role in robot plays a computer). *'A.I.' - is a computer of course. A.I. is when there is only computer and it hasn't any mechanism. So according to that, computerized robots are just A.Is. with mechanisms. The word "A.I." is abbreviation for "artificial intelligence". *'cyborg' - is a being that is partially organic and partially mechanical or computerized (for example a human with a computer brain would also be a cyborg). The word "cyborg" is abbreviation for "cybernetic organism". But the single word "cyber" means just something connected to computers. 'Kinds of robots' By the structure: As I said before there are two main types of robots: pure mechanical and computerized. There can be of course something in between, like for example analog circuits, transistors or Tesla coils, that in fact cannot be fully assigned to one of the two main categories. There is also something like "computing machine" and in fact it is a mechanical equivalent of a computer. It's of course purely mechanical so I will assign it to this categry, but still it's very unique kind of mechanism with specified funtion. So according to that: *'Purely mechanical' - robot that is only mechanical and there is no computer inside of it. Instead of that it can have a computing machine, but it doesn't have to. Mechanical robots can be very various styles, that can consist of various types of mechanisms or of ones that are very specified. *'Computerized' - robot that consist of mechanism and compter elements combined together. *'Somewhere in between' - kind of robot that cannon be fully assigned to any of the two main categories (pure mechanical or computerized), because of the very specific elements it has, such as analog circuits, transistors or Tesla coil. By the function: *'regular robot' - robot that hasn't anything special in itself. *'automaton' - robot that is made only of mechanism, it's self-operating machine. Its "programmed" with its mechanism to make some moves (for example vintage clockwork robot toys from 1950's). The term automaton can also be used to describe any kind of robot that can work independently. For example drones or (self)sentient robots can be called automatons. *'automat' - computerized robot that is programmed to do some specified things. The difference between automaton and automat is that automaton is programmed with its mechanism and automat is programmed with its computer part. *'nanobot' - robot that is so small that it cannon be seen by a human being. *'mech' - kind of robot that is actually a vehicle. It means that you can go inside of it and drive it. Mech is any kind of robot vehicle, even if it's smaller from a human being, it still can be vehicle for example for some little being. But in a common word the word "mecha" with "a" ending means just giant robot, usually larger than a human being. In fact mecha even doesn't have to be a vehicle. For example Gundams are mechs. *'robotic suit/armor' - also robot vehicle, but the differnce betwen it and mech is very slight. Mech have some cockpit to control it, while robotic suit covers whole body. Example of robotic suit can be Iron Man. *'combiner' - robot made from some modules. This modules can be of course another robots or just specified parts. For example: Voltron, Megazords (Power Rangers), Devastator (Transformers). *'transformer (changer)' - the robot which can change its body (shape) into a differnet form using its mechanisms. For example: Transformers, GoBots, Machine Robo. *'android' - robot with shape or appearance similar to human being. The word "android" comes from Greek and means "human-like" and it sometimes can also mean a sythetic organism (not the robot). Androids can be male or female, like also they can have no sex. But in a common word term android is also used to describe male ones. So for example phrase "androids & gynoids" would just mean male and female androids. *'gynoid' - female android. The word "gynoid" also comes from Greek and means "woman-like". But still all female robots, so not only ones that resemble a human can be called fembots (female robots). While the oldest word for that originated in 1921 is "robotess". By the personality: *'drone' - kind of robot that is controled by somebody. *'autonomic' - kind of drone. But it has more freedom. It means that it can independently make decisions, but still it's just a program, and it is supposed to reach some point. *'(self)sentient' - robot that is just alive. Sentience is life. When you can feel and think it means that you are just alive. In science fiction there are lots of robots of this kind, but many of them are limited by its proramming that tells them what to do. This is only list of basic kind of robots. Robots can be of course very various styles (like many other things) and there will always be some that will not fit into this categories. 'Can robots be alive?' Of course. Life grows in very many forms and robots are one of them. It's the evolution, just like with the organics. Machines also evolve. And when they are (self)sentient it means that they are alive. Senience is life. When you can feel and think it means that you are just alive. And when alive, feelings are just the matter of time.